Organisations have become increasingly proactive in celebrating new hires, promotions and work anniversaries. In an increasingly competitive global labour market, recognition of your team is a simple but powerful way of building culture. After all, these are milestones that should be recognised and celebrated.
But why don’t we celebrate resignations?
I know, you’re probably thinking “what about the inconvenience of people resigning?” I get it. I am the CEO of a business that is solely reliant on people for it’s revenue output. And I too have fallen into this same trap. I have sent countless internal emails to our team that have recognised the contribution of team mates, but I have never celebrated people’s contribution externally.
Guess what? People resign. That’s OK.
Right now, our business is a case in point. We have just had three resignations of very long-term employees. The first reaction is “damage control”. What will our team think? What will the market think?
Clearly, as leaders in the business we need to ensure that our team feel secure, so it is important to address their questions and concerns. However, to not recognise publicly the contribution of the people leaving your organisation externally is a massive lost opportunity.
In our case, three people have resigned with between 7-8 years of experience each. That is a lot of knowledge and experience. However, we should be – and we are – incredibly proud of their contribution to Gemba. We are proud of their development while working with Gemba. We are genuinely excited about what’s next for them.
So, from now on, I am going to publicly celebrate these sorts of contributions. These moments are both fantastic proof points of the benefits of working at Gemba and opportunities to celebrate the contributions of our people.
So, to Anthony Bateman, Richard Howarth and Chris Beattie. Thank you! You have each made critical contributions to the development of Gemba. You have built new divisions, new capabilities and our culture. We sure will miss each of you but know we will be in contact through our Alumni program.
To everyone else, check out some amazing job opportunities on this link. They are great roles and if you need further confirmation of this, ask Anthony, Richard and Chris.